Photo taken on Sept. 21, 2018 shows a view of a small grocery run by Steve Taylor in Estes Park, a small town located at the foothill of Rocky Mountain in north Colorado, the United States. Estes Park is a popular summer resort attracting tourists from all of the world, and most of products in shops there are labeled "Made in China". (Xinhua/Li Ying)
IMPACT TO APPEAR IN WINTER
Everybody knows that the price increases caused by the tariffs will inevitably come like a storm in the Rocky Mountain's winter. Imports are expected to eventually fall from September due to the tariffs, and the report predicted that imports in January 2019 will fall to 1.77 million TEU.
"As thousands of businesses have testified and explained in comments to the administration, tariffs are a tax on American families," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said in a statement issued last week regarding the U.S. move to impose additional tariffs on Chinese goods.
"It's disappointing that, despite the voices of those impacted, the administration continues to advance harmful tariff policies that threaten to weaken the U.S. economy," the statement read.
"Every time this trade war escalates, the risk to U.S. consumers grows. With these latest tariffs, many hardworking Americans will soon wonder why their shopping bills are higher and their budgets feel stretched," it said.
"The mere talk of tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports is of serious concern to retailers since tariffs of that magnitude would touch every aspect of American life," said the statement.
The NRF, the world's largest retail trade association, also rebuked that President Donald Trump administration's thinking -- using tariffs to push companies to manufacture more goods in the United States -- saying it is flawed since carefully planned supply chain plans can't be redrawn overnight and retailers must order their products six months to a year in advance.
QUESTIONS FOR FINDING OTHER SUPPLIERS
"The administration continues to overestimate the ability of US companies to shift supply chains out of China," the Washington-based trade group was reported as saying in a letter to the United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer.
"Global supply chains are extremely complex. It can take years to find the right partners who can meet the proper criteria and produce products at the scale and cost that is needed," the letter said.
Moreover, in an interview with Nation Public Radio, David French, senior vice president of government relations at the NRF, questioned if the retailers can find other suppliers outside of China.
"The other big question is capacity. China is a large country with a lot of people, and they can manufacture a lot of things," French said.
"That capacity doesn't exist everywhere in the world. In fact, it doesn't exist in most parts of the world. The final thing to think about is -- if retailers or importers could have sourced anywhere else at the same price, at the same level of quality, they already would have done so," he said.
Both Gold and French stressed that comparing to big companies such as Walmart or Target, small business owners like Taylor running business in the small mountain town will be hit by the tariffs harder. A recent NRF survey showed that 46 percent of smaller retailers expect the trade war will hurt their businesses.
"Some small retailers are telling us that they're likely to go out of business as a result of these tariffs because they can't pass on -- they can't absorb the cost, and they can't easily pass it on to consumers," French said.
